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Saturday, May 02, 2009

"The Pilot Eventually Spotted the UFO . . . He Armed His Rockets Waiting to Shoot . . ."

Excerpt from Maritime UFO Files By Don Ledger5-1-09

There is an epilogue of sorts to the [[a] radar case at Royal Canadian Naval Air Station [RCNAS], Dartmouth, Nova Scotia on June 30-July 1 1950 but it took the passage of 47 years before it could be told.

As is almost a given in the business of investigating UFO sightings, coincidence takes a hand. In November of 1997 I had occasion to be in Vancouver, British Columbia, my first trip to the west coast. It was necessary for me to lay over an extra day in order to take advantage of an Air Canada seat sale. I used that extra day to meet with a few of my UFO investigator counterparts associated with UFO BC. One of those was Graham Conway a Ufologist with many more years in this game than I. We spent many hours together that day discussing cases we were either involved in or aware of.

During the course of our talk he mentioned that he had an acquaintance there in BC who was stationed in Nova Scotia in the fifties with Royal Canadian Navy and that I should call him some time. Graham indicated that he might have some stories to tell me. Then we moved on to other topics. After an enjoyable day and evening I flew back to Nova Scotia the next day having completely forgotten to get the name and address of the man of which we had talked. A couple of days after I returned I received an email message from Dave Pengilly, a UFO BC investigator in British Columbia, informing me that Graham Conway was forwarding a message to me with the name and phone number of the Naval person we had discussed while I was out there.

The man’s name was Earl Cale and I phoned him at a time arranged through email. His first words, after the usual pleasantries, were about his being an Air Traffic Controller in the early fifties at the Base in Shearwater or Canadian Naval Air Station in Dartmouth. He stated that one evening base radar had picked up an object crossing the area at 1,000 miles per hour [1,670 kph], a speed unheard of at that time. After some discussion about the time frame we were able to determine that this would have been in 1950 or 1951. This most likely this case June 1950-UFOs on radar, RCNAS- Dartmouth NS; It is the only case or record I have of heavy radar involvement from that locale and date.

Cale explained that this type of thing went on for about a week by which time it was confirmed that this was something solid that the radar was tracking. As a result two propeller driven Sea Furies, [armed with rockets!] were placed on 24 hour standby along with the pilots to man them.

The Sea Furies were capable of 460 miles per hour in straight and level flight and were the only high speed aircraft available. Jets were unheard of in the Canadian Fleet Air Arm and in the RCAF. It would be nearly two years before they would make an appearance. Loaded as they were with their armament the Sea Furies were considerably slower than they would be when unencumbered.

The tactic paid off when one evening an object showed up on the screen heading towards the base. It over-flew the base while one of the Sea Furies was scrambled, taking after the object in hot pursuit. The UFO was headed toward Dartmouth a few miles to the northwest with the Sea Fury in pursuit. Using vectors supplied by the radar personnel at CNAS-Dartmouth the Sea Fury closed on the UFO. The pilot eventually spotted the UFO and, advancing throttle, bore in on it. He armed his rockets waiting to shoot. The Sea Fury got to within 2,000 feet below and 2 miles behind the object. To his amazement and that of the radar personnel, the UFO “took off like a shot” at an incredible speed leaving the Sea Fury pilot contemplating the inadequacy of his craft and the radar personnel scratching their heads.

After some discussion we were able to determine that Earl had been working ATC at the base in 1951, and recognized the names of Petty Officer Clarke and Able Seaman Connolly. He also remembered Doull, the Lt. Commander (Direction) who wrote the original report that resulted in the investigation Board being formed. Most importantly he remembered hearing of the “Board’s” investigation of the June/July sighting in 1950. He further informed me that the radar room was directly below the control tower and he would have known many of the personnel working there. A phone, naturally, linked the two rooms together. So there you have it, confirmation at least that more than two radar and base personnel had seen UFO targets on radar, and base involvement at higher authority levels than just the ranks. The latter is obvious if armed military aircraft are involved. In fact it probably went as high as the Chief of Air Staff in Trenton, a must if you are planning on firing rockets tipped with warheads over a populated area.

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